While meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said Estonia is interested in concluding an agreement with Japan for the avoidance of double taxation. “Economic and trade relations between our two countries are good and in 2012 Japan ranked as Estonia’s 30th trade partner,“ Paet said. “Yet we are interested in further expanding cooperation, as well as developing relations in the areas of logistics, energy, pharmaceuticals and other sectors. That is why concluding an agreement for the avoidance of double taxation is of high priority to us,” he added.

According to Paet, Japan is interested in cooperating with the Nordic and Baltic countries with the Nordic-Baltic cooperation framework (NB 8).

Paet and Kishida also discussed the situation in Ukraine and relations with Russia and the Arctic region.

According to Paet, Estonia is interested in cooperating with Japan in the areas of information and communication technology, including cyber security. “We wish to work cooperatively with Japan both bilaterally and multilaterally, in order to guarantee global cyber security,” the Estonian foreign minister remarked. “One definite area of cooperation is critical information infrastructure protection,” Paet revealed.

He added, that Japan joining the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime as the first Asian country is very positive.

Japan and Estonia also share a similar understanding of internet freedom. “We hope Japan will soon join the Freedom Online Coalition, of which Estonia is currently the chairman,” said Paet. He invited the Japanese foreign minister to participate in the “Free and Secure Internet for All” conference in Tallinn on April 28 and 29. “The advancement of free and secure internet must be ongoing and led by all those involved – the state, private sector and non-governmental organisations,” added Paet.

While on the topic of Japanese relations with the European Union, Paet noted that Japan is an essential strategic partner, with whom we share common values and who carries an important role in the advancement of relations in Asia. “Estonia considers the start of free trade agreement talks between the EU and Japan in April of 2013 to be a positive development and we support entering into a strong free trade agreement with Japan,” Paet said. “That would lead to stronger relations in the future both bilaterally and regionally, as well as globally,” he added.